On four wheels

 Tuesday evening - Wednesday

So after my exertions during the day, I had built up a good appetite. Interestingly a lot of the tavernas did not seem open today, or at least they looked like that. I finally settled on one looking over the water, mountains the other side and the sun sinking. It was still windy and I sat outside the shelter of the plastic ‘tent’ most people opted to sit in. I think the owners thought I was mad, in my fleece and shorts. I ordered goat in lemon sauce, a first for me and my half kilo of red. While I waited, the sun seemed at a suitable place and I nipped over to the harbour to take a few photos.

The meal arrived and it was excellent, very tender and tasty. Later on I walked home, buying an ice cream on the way. The next morning after picking up the car, I headed south in the direction that I walked yesterday morning. I first stopped off at Batsi, this has a lovely beach and harbour all in one, like Kamares on Sifnos.  It’s a bit touristy, I walked up to its church, some children  were playing outside it. I then had a wander around, and walked around the harbour too. For some reason Batsi has lots of buildings with terracotta roof tiles.

I then carried on further on, stopping for views along the way. There was a sign to a beach, it had no name, but I drove as far as I dared and walked the rest of the way. I disturbed some large bird of prey, which swooped off when it saw me. I saw the same lupins that I saw on Paros in March. There were lovely thistles and huge banks of scarlet poppies as well. 

I forgot to mention yesterday, as it’s warming up, I often hear a rustle and sometimes see a lizard scamper off. It’s probably as they have  slate here, but some of the walls they build are very different from any I have seen before. Normally it’s just a very carefully placed pile of bits of rock, but here they take a slate slab and put it vertically and interleave these with regular piles of slate to make a patterned wall. It’s probably very good at reducing material usage when building a wall. When I got to the beach the sea was a lovely colour and I had the place to myself.

On the way back I met a herd of goats, the kids were nearly full size, there was one Billy goat. They were rearing  up to reach leaves off trees, but soon scarpered ahead of me on the path and kept their distance. Eventually they turned off, the Billy keeping an eye on them to make sure all were safely away, before he to turned in and disappeared. It’s  funny, the island is windy but I have not seen any old windmills yet.

I then carried on and turned East to reach Korti bay. This is the biggest bay I have ever seen. Annoyingly there were big concrete blocks in parts of it, which might protect it, but spoiled the view! It’s a proper place with all the right shops you need, children were playing football in a big open area. I needed fuel, so I popped in a bakers, and as well as a cheese pie, I had these little cookies with almond nuts in them, quite small but coated with a thick layer of icing sugar. The icing sugar made them too sweet and hard to eat. 

I walked along the long street parallel with the sea, with all sorts of shops, but sadly some closed up and derelict. There were some mute swans here, I saw some the other day, for some reason  I did not expect to see them in Greece. There was a sign saying seals can sometimes be seen here. It also said  Giaros, the island I mentioned before definitely has them. I followed the harbour as far as I could and then walked back to the car.

I then decided to go up the East  coast as far as Andros town, then cross the island to the West then head back to Gavrio. This is Andros town. I will go there tomorrow!